Tony Blair is a great crisis manager, a senior aide to Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev said as he confirmed the former Prime Minister has
advised the ex-Soviet state.

Speculation has increased over the last few days that Mr Blair has added Kazakhstan, ruled by Mr Nazarbayev since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, to his consultancy business.

In an interview with the Vremya newspaper, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, Mr Nazarbayev’s adviser, appeared to confirm this and also said that Mr Blair and his team had opened an office in Astana, the Kazakh capital.

“A large working group is here and, to my knowledge, it has already opened Tony Blair’s permanent office in Astana,” he said.

“I have met with his people already and we discussed the socio-political modernisation of our country. I liked his people, the range of questions they discussed and their professionalism.”

Tony Blair Associates, Mr Blair’s company, later denied the former Prime Minister or any of his companies were currently involved in the deal.

"Tony Blair has helped put together a team of international advisers and consultants to set up an advisory group for the Kazakhs, with a team of people working on the ground," an emailed statement from Mr Blair's office said. "The Kazakhs also engage with a number of other former European leaders."

Hiring Mr Blair's help, however extensive, is a coup for Kazakhstan. Only a few years ago it was trying to shake off the image of the boorish Kazakh character Borat, invented by the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

Now, though, with its vast energy supplies, the Central Asian state is increasingly confident and prepared to spend millions to promote itself.

Since leaving office in 2007, Mr Blair has taken on a handful of international roles including Special Envoy to the Middle East. Away from international diplomacy, Tony Blair Associates has cultivated Mr Blair's links to build up business.

Kazakhstan, though, would be a potentially controversial client. Human rights groups have criticised Kazakhstan for its control of the media and it has never held an election judged to be free and fair by international observers.

The contract with Kazakhstan that Mr Blair has been linked to is reported to be worth £8 million and include members of his former Downing Street team.

The emailed statement from Mr Blair's office said that he was not receiving any cash for helping to set up the consultancy group.

"Tony Blair last visited Kazakhstan in May of this year to attend a conference," the statement said. "He is not personally making a profit directly or indirectly through Tony Blair Associates or any company on this."

In his interview with the Vremya newspaper, Mr Yertysbayev declined to comment on the cost to Kazakhstan of employing Mr Blair although he said the former Prime Minister’s experience made him a good fit for the job.

“I think we are facing a second (global financial) crisis and the involvement of Tony Blair is correct because as the British Prime Minister he went down in history as a great crisis manager and carried out fairly serious social and economic modernisation in the United Kingdom,” he said.